NewsWrap
for the week ending June 16, 2001
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #690, distributed 06-18-01)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Chris Ambidge,
Brian Nunes, Jason Lin, Rex Wockner, and Greg Gordon]
Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Donald Herman
Klaus Wowereit became mayor of Berlin this week after identifying himself
as a gay man for the first time. At a meeting of the ruling Social
Democratic Party this week he ended a speech accepting their unanimous
mayoral nomination by saying, "I am gay and that's a good thing." His coming
out is believed by some to have anticipated a possible "outing," but it's
reportedly been well-received. His speech was greeted with extended
applause, and later a poll found that only about one in 7 Germans had
concerns about having a gay mayor. He later commented that, "I have never
conducted gay politics, but rather politics as a gay man." The 47-year-old
Wowereit is an attorney who has served six years on the Berlin Assembly with
little public notice.
Exiting Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen suffered a vote of no confidence by the
city Assembly this week, reflecting allegations of corruption and
mismanagement resulting in debt totalling billions of dollars*. Wowereit was
then elected by the Assembly by a vote of 89-to-78 with 2 abstentions. He's
been sworn in to head an interim government until Berliners go to the polls,
probably in September.
Wowereit is the second open gay to head a major European city, following the
election of Bertrand DelanoŽ as mayor of Paris earlier this year. Because
Berlin is actually a city-state of nearly 3-1/2-million people, Wowereit can
also be viewed as a governor.
In Britain, Michael Portillo formally announced his candidacy for the
leadership of the Opposition Conservative Party. He's favored to win over 2
or 3 likely candidates who are farther to the right. Preparing for his
political comeback two years ago, Portillo publicly referred to "homosexual
experiences" in his youth, although he has admitted to none since his
marriage nearly 20 years ago.
That admission alone makes him unfit for party leadership, right-wing senior
Tory Lord Tebbit told the BBC this week. Tebbit said he prefers Portillo's
likely opponent Iain Duncan Smith because Smith is a "normal family man with
children."
18 of the 61 local party chairs reportedly also oppose Portillo specifically
because of his gay past.
But a public poll taken at the time Portillo's statement ran in the "London
Times" found that nearly 70% of Britons would accept a Prime Minister with
such a history, while nearly 60% would accept an openly gay Prime Minister.
Portillo has urged the Tories to soften their vehement opposition to gay and
lesbian civil rights.
In announcing his candidacy, Portillo called the Tories' devastating defeat
at the polls this month "catastrophic" and promised his leadership would mean
"major changes" in the party's "style and the issues it chooses to focus on."
He said, "We need to adopt a tone that is moderate and understanding,"
warning that otherwise the party will lose the public's respect.
Conservatives will vote for their new leader in July, with the winner to be
announced by early August.
Italy's new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi named several vehemently
anti-gay neo-fascists to his Cabinet this week. Among them were Umberto
Bossi, head of the nationalist Northern League, and Gianfranco Fini, head of
the National Alliance formed from what was once Mussolini's Brown Shirts.
Fini will serve as Deputy Prime Minister. Although Fini was key to the
election success of the ruling Casa delle Liberta coalition, pundits had
believed the strong showing of Berlusconi's own Forza Italia party would
allow him to sidestep Bossi, whose party pulled less than 5% of the vote.
The U.S. Senate this week voted narrowly to withhold federal education
funds from schools that deny meeting space to the Boy Scouts of America
because of its policy of excluding gays. An identical measure was approved
by a voice vote in the House in May. The education amendment by homophobic
North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms also ensures access for other
youth groups that, in its words, "prohibit the acceptance of homosexuality."
During lengthy debate, Democrats claimed that language could be used to force
access for hate groups. But conservative West Virginia Democratic Senator
Robert Byrd supported Helms' amendment to give it a 51-to-49 edge.
California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer later introduced a successful
amendment to bar discrimination against groups that support gays and lesbians
as well. The overall education funding bill was passed by an overwhelming
91-to-8.
The Scouts' policy has created controversy across the nation since a
divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to discriminate a year ago.
The national group's official declaration of the previously unwritten policy
led to reconsideration of Scout groups' status by local governments, school
districts, United Ways, and corporate donors with non-discrimination policies
including sexual orientation.
When the more than 300 regional councils of the Boy Scouts of America held
their annual meeting earlier this month, there were calls to end the ban on
gays from some of the largest groups, including those from Los Angeles, New
York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Minneapolis, and San Francisco.
Also this week, perhaps the most notable victim of the Scouts' ban on gays
confirmed the preliminary settlement of his lawsuit against them, without
disclosing terms. Len Lanzi had served well over a decade as head of
California's Los Padres Council of the Boy Scouts. Then he identified
himself as a gay man while testifying in the Scouts' defense before the Santa
Barbara County Board of Supervisors, which ultimately ended a special deal
with the Council for the use of some County facilities and its annual cash
grant. Lanzi was fired as a result, believed to be the highest-ranking Scout
in the U.S. to come out since the high court ruling. He sued for breach of
contract, defamation, discrimination, and wrongful termination.
Also in California, a federal appeals court upheld San Francisco's
pioneering Equal Benefits Ordinance in the face of a challenge by the
religious right. Since 1997, San Francisco has required its contractors to
offer their unmarried employees' domestic partners the same benefits extended
to married workers' spouses. The 3-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeal unanimously rejected an Ohio-based company's claim that the local
law represented an unconstitutional restriction of interstate commerce. Gay
and lesbian activists were impressed that a conservative judge wrote a ruling
clearly identifying the Equal Benefits Ordinance as a legitimate defense of
civil rights.
Since San Francisco passed its ordinance, Los Angeles and Seattle have
adopted similar ones, and it's believed that a number of other cities may be
encouraged to follow suit in the wake of this legal victory.
A further challenge to San Francisco's ordinance by the Air Transport
Association is still pending in the same appellate court.
Hawai'i now has a hate crimes bill for the first time, one which will
increase sentences for crimes motivated by homophobia as well as other
biases. It was signed into law this week by Lieutenant Governor Mazie
Hirono, who had specifically asked Democratic Governor Ben Cayetano to
perform that honor while he traveled on the mainland. Among those attending
the signing ceremony was gay activist Martin Rice, who was one of a score of
gays victimized in a serious hate attack while on a camping trip on Kaua'i.
Two young men have been charged with attempted murder for that attack.
Also in the U.S. this week, two of the nation's largest Christian
denominations held their national conferences.
The anti-gay Southern Baptist Convention, representing nearly 16-million
members, met in New Orleans. In keeping with that locale the gay-supportive
interfaith group Soulforce capped a week of silent protest with a
demonstration in the form of a "jazz funeral". While dancing to "When the
Saints Go Marching In," about 100 members attempted to carry into the meeting
a coffin representing gays and lesbians damaged by the denomination's
anti-gay positions. The result was 34 arrests for trespassing, but those
charges were later dropped. As it does each year, the conservative-dominated
Convention featured several explicitly anti-gay proposals, and passed one
applauding President George W. Bush's refusal to issue a proclamation of Gay
and Lesbian Pride Month. Most proposals were sent to committees, but a move
to allow "ex-gays" to speak at the 2002 meeting was defeated.
It was quite a different story at the General Assembly of the
2-1/2-million-member Presbyterian Church (USA), where 60% of delegates
approved a move to ordain sexually active gays and lesbians. Just 4 years
ago the denomination officially adopted the ban on ordination of non-celibate
gays and lesbians as church law, although it had been an "authoritative
interpretation" since 1978. Repeal of the ban, which had been recommended by
the denomination's committee on ordination standards, will still have to be
endorsed by a majority of the 173 regional presbyteries to take effect. That
voting will take months, and no one is yet willing to predict the outcome.
And finally... fans in 100 countries are bidding farewell to TV's "Xena,
Warrior Princess" after six years. A strong lesbian following helped make
the action-adventure series one of the top-rated syndicated dramas. Its star
New Zealander Lucy Lawless told the Associated Press, "Originally, it was a
story about Xena and Gabrielle confronting the world. But the story shifted
and it became about how the relationship between the two of them was
affected. ... There were times we'd play up to the lesbian subtext. ... The
producers and writers weren't afraid to toy with that. But it was never
meant to be an overtone. ... It didn't matter one way or the other to me, or
to Renee [O'Connor]. It made no difference in how we played the roles. We
just tried to play a relationship of love and respect, and what people wanted
to read into it was fine."